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Our previous Update (from June 2012) as well as all previous updates, dating from March 2004, available online. You can access them through the Updates option at the top of this page or via the Quick Links along the left side of the page. These Updates (59 of them) provide the best contemporaneous accounts of the Trust's ongoing activities over the past six years.

We always recommend that people read Reich's own words for factual descriptions of his work, rather than the unreliable, distorted and oftentimes asinine narratives on the Internet; in poorly researched films, books, articles and exhibits; and from other dubious sources.

Below is an excerpt from a summary of his work which Reich wrote to an American publisher on August 24, 1948:

"Since it might appear unusual that a bio-psychiatrist should work as an expert in the realm of non-living nature, I believe it will be helpful to give the following summary:

My present work began in the realm of psychiatry and psychoanalysis, with natural scientific investigations of the energy at work in human emotions.

This led to the discovery of the bio-energy in the living organism, termed organismic orgone energy; and further to the discovery of the same type of a basically physical orgone energy in the atmosphere.

Orgonomy is not psychiatry, but the science of biophysics of the emotions, thus also including psychiatry, and physics in the realm of basic cosmic orgone energy.

It is not mysticism, but natural scientific, experimental investigation, also of mystical emotions and experiences.

Orgone energy is energy before matter (not after matter, as is atomic energy). It is studied by means of Geiger-Müller Counters and other physical instruments.

It follows entirely new, hitherto unknown functional laws of nature, and not the well known mechanical laws of electricity, heat, or mechanics."

Where's the Truth? is the fourth and final volume of Wilhelm Reich's autobiographical writings, an account of the last years of his life and scientific career drawn from his diaries, letters and laboratory notebooks. These writings reveal the details of the outrider scientist's life--his joys and sorrows, his hopes and insecurities--and chronicle his experiments with what he called "orgone energy".

A student of Freud's and a prominent research physician in the early psychoanalytic movement in Vienna and Berlin, Reich emigrated from Oslo to America in 1939 in flight from Naziism, arriving in New York four days before the outbreak of World War Two. In New York, and later in Maine and Arizona, he pursued his research about orgone energy functions in the living organism and in the atmosphere.

Where's the Truth? begins in January 1948, several months after Reich became a target
of the Federal Food and Drug Administration. Starting in December 1939, he’d already faced possible persecution by the U.S. government, having been mistaken by the State Department and FBI for both a Communist and a Nazi.

Beginning in the summer of 1947, Reich was hounded by the FDA which, in 1954, obtained an injunction by default against him that enabled it to burn six tons of his published books and research journals, and to ban the use of one of his most important experimental research tools: the orgone energy accumulator.

Challenging the right of a court to judge basic scientific research, Reich was imprisoned
in March 1957 and died in the U.S. Penitentiary in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania eight months later at the age of 60.

The text gathered in this volume shows Reich’s steadfast determination to protect his work. "Where's the truth?" Reich asked a lawyer. And that question animates this volume and rounds out our understanding of a unique, irrepressible modern figure.

BOOKSTORE SALE: $90 FOR THE 4-VOLUME SET OF REICH’S AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL BOOKS

Passion of Youth - An Autobiography (1897-1922), Beyond Psychology - Letters and Journals (1934-1939), American Odyssey - Letters and Journals (1940 -1947), and Where's the Truth? - Letters and Journals (1948-1957) are now available as a 4-volume set for $90. Bought separately, these books would cost $115. A $25 discount!

NEW IN OUR BOOKSTORE: CATALOG OF REICH’S PERSONAL LIBRARY

For years, visitors to the Wilhelm Reich Museum have commented on Reich's impressive personal library which is located in the bookshelves of his study on the second floor of the Orgone Energy Observatory. Serious scholars, particularly, often remark on Reich's intellectual breadth and curiosity as evident by this eclectic collection.

A bound 143-page Catalog of Wilhelm Reich’s Personal Library is now available in our bookstore for $26.95. To anyone interested in Reich's life and work, especially the serious scholar, this catalog provides a deeper understanding of Reich's intellectual pursuits and the evolution of his work.

CREATION OF A SYLLABUS LEADS TO A WILHELM REICH COURSE IN A U.S. COLLEGE

During the week of July 9, 2012, a small group of college academics met at Orgonon and completed the syllabus for a one-semester college course about Reich's life and work.

The class was designed as a "Level 300" course, meaning that students will know from this designation that this is a serious, upper-level class, and not some easy "gut" course.

As a basic template, the course content was organized as a once-a-week, 2¾ hour class, with the intent that this syllabus would provide a fluid prototype that could accommodate variations by professors wishing to teach this class. Which is exactly what happened.

Science historian James Strick, Ph.D.--a professor at Franklin & Marshall College who is writing a book for Harvard University Press about Reich's bion experiments--was part of the group designing the initial syllabus at Orgonon. At the same time, he was re-working the content for a twice-weekly course which he subsequently listed in his college catalogue for Spring 2013. Twelve students signed up and Professor Strick is now teaching the course.

Below is the initial syllabus that was completed at Orgonon in July 2012:

COURSE TITLE:Sex, Lies and Bookburning:The Life and Work of Wilhelm Reich

Wilhelm Reich, M.D. (1897-1957) is famous as a brilliant psychoanalyst and psychiatrist who developed the technique of character analysis and authored the book of that name, long a staple text in psychology and psychiatry courses.

Eventually Reich's pioneering work on muscular armoring led to the development of numerous "body therapy" techniques widely popular today. He also wrote the incisive critiques of the rise of Nazism (The Mass Psychology of Fascism, 1933) and of the onset of reactionary social and political conditions under Stalin (The Sexual Revolution, 1945; original German version Die Sexualität im Kulturkampf, 1936).

Within the Socialist and Communist parties in Austria and Germany, he led a political movement for reform of birth control and abortion laws from the late 1920s to 1933.

Reich became an experimental scientist starting in 1934, attempting to put a firm scientific foundation under Freud's theory of libido, the energy source behind human drives, including sexual drives. This led to a complex series of experimental and theoretical works that grew by an inherent logic from biology and physiology, through cancer research, to the discovery of a previously unknown form of biological and atmospheric energy that Reich called orgone.

Reich's experimental use of orgone energy in attempting to treat human diseases led to a confrontation with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration which considered his work quackery. An FDA witch hunt culminated in a legal case in 1954 in which Reich took a principled stand that a court of law cannot judge scientific discoveries. Eventually the government imprisoned Reich on a technicality, convicting him of contempt of court. He died in a federal prison in 1957.

This course examines the development of Reich's thought and clinical and experimental work in psychiatry, sociology, biology, biophysics, and eventually pure physics. We will evaluate his conflict with the U.S. government and consider that case as an example of the complex relations between science, law and government institutions.

The course will include written assignments, a research paper, and midterm and final exams.

READING LIST

Complete books and publications to be read:

The Sexual Struggle of Youth by Wilhelm Reich
English translation of original 1932 German publication

Bion Experiments and the Cancer Problem by Wilhelm Reich
Published in 1939 in English in Oslo/Copenhagen/Rotterdam

Orgonomic Diagnosis of the Cancer Biopathy – compiled by Chester Raphael, M.D.
and Helen MacDonald, Ph.D.
Published in 1952, based on a course on cancer given by Wilhelm Reich, M.D. at Orgonon, Rangeley, Maine, during July and August 1950.

from The Function of the Orgasm, pp. 3-37
Chapter I – "Biology and Sexology Before Freud"

CLASS #1: Introduction to Reich's Life and Work & to the Prevalent Distorted Narratives of Reich

Introduction to the major themes of the course:

Reich's energy concept as a consistent "red thread" in his psychoanalytic, psychiatric, medical and scientific work

the mainstream perceptions and distorted narratives about Reich's life and work, and the unreliability and intellectual dishonesty of many of these narratives

Reich's publications (1920s-1950s) and his habit of revising earlier editions
to reflect the evolution of his work.

Reich's childhood. Military service in World War I. Intellectual development during his early years in medical school at the University of Vienna.

This class takes us up to Reich's first meeting with Freud in the autumn of 1919.

Reading for Class #2

from The Function of the Orgasm, pp. 38-110
Chapter II – "Peer Gynt"
Chapter III – "Gaps in the Theory of Sex and Psychology"
Chapter IV – "The Development of the Orgasm Theory" up to the end of Part 3

from Early Writings - Volume One, pp. 199-221
"Further Remarks on the Therapeutic Significance of Genital Libido"
(expanded version of Reich's lecture at the 8th International Psychoanalytic
Congress in 1924 in which he introduced the concept of "orgastic potency")

CLASS #2: Reich in Vienna (1920-1927)

Reich as a young, pioneering psychoanalyst and psychiatrist in Vienna.

This class takes us up to the day that Reich was "politicized": July 15, 1927.

Reading for Class #3

from The Function of the Orgasm, pp. 117-249
Chapter V – "The Development of the Character-Analytic Technique"
Chapter VI – "A Biological Revolution That Miscarried"

CLASS #3: Reich in Vienna (1927-30)

Reich's left-wing activities. The evolution of his psychoanalytic work.
The growing ideological rifts between Reich and Freud.

This class takes us up to Reich's last meeting with Freud in September 1930,
a few weeks before Reich moved from Vienna to Berlin.

from The Mass Psychology of Fascism, pp. 3-103
Chapter I – "Ideology as a Material Force"
Chapter II – "The Authoritarian Ideology of the Family
in the Mass Psychology of Fascism"
Chapter III – "The Race Theory"
Chapter IV– "The Symbolism of the Swastika"

CLASS #4: Reich in Berlin (1930-32)

Reich's psychoanalytic work. Membership in the German Psychoanalytic Society. Involvement in left-wing politics to counter the rise of Naziism. Efforts to unify
the various German sex-political organizations. Writings.

This class takes us up to Reich's founding of his own press (Sexpol Verlag)
in early 1932 to publish The Sexual Struggle of Youth and The Invasion
of Compulsory Sex Morality.

Reading for Class #5

The Sexual Struggle of Youth - entire 1932 text (88 pages)

from The Invasion of Compulsory Sex Morality
Chapter I – "The Origin of Sexual Repression", pp. 3-37
Part II – "The Problem of Sexual Economy", pp. 145-157

CLASS #5: Reich in Berlin (1932-33)

Left-wing responses to The Sexual Struggle of Youth. Reich's involvement with political youth groups. Finishes a new manuscript on psychoanalytic technique (Character Analysis) which Freud agrees to publish. The Nazis come to power.

This class ends with Reich fleeing from Berlin to Vienna after the Nazi newspaper
condemns The Sexual Struggle of Youth (March 1933).

from Character Analysis, pp. 285-254
Chapter XIII – "Psychic Contact and Vegetative Streaming"
(expanded version of Reich's 1934 lecture at the 13th IPA Congress in Lucerne)

from The Function of the Orgasm, pp. 250-367
Chapter VII – "The Breakthrough into the Vegetative Realm"
Chapter VIII – "The Orgasm Reflex and the Technique
of Character-Analytic Vegetotherapy"

CLASS #6: Reich in Denmark and Sweden (1933-34)

Hostile climate in Vienna. Freud cancels contract to publish Character Analysis. Invited to practice and teach in Copenhagen. Therapeutic work continues evolving from the psychic to the psychosomatic. Turmoil in left-wing political activities.

This class takes us up to Reich's expulsion from the International Psychoanalytic Association at the 13th IPA Congress in Lucerne (August 1934).

CLASS #7: Reich's Bio-electrical Experiments at the University of Oslo (1934-35)

Moves to Oslo where he has been invited to teach at the Psychological Institute of the University of Oslo, and to have access to the Institute's laboratory. Carries out bio-electrical experiments to investigate the possible electrical nature of sexuality.

This class brings us up to Reich planning his next experiments: investigating
the internal vegetative currents of protozoa.

Reading for Class #8

The Bion Experiments on the Origin of Life
Entire text: pp. 3-192 + Bibliography on pp. 193-198

excerpts from files of the FBI, INS (Immigration & Naturalization Service) and FDA

factually inaccurate narratives about Reich from more recent sources

CLASS #13: Reception and Perception of Reich's Work in America (1940s –50s)

Rumors and slanders about Reich in the American psychoanalytic community prior to his emigration in 1939. In 1942 Reich starts publishing his work in English
which attracts a new and wider audience. Hostility to his work in the American Psychoanalytic, Psychiatric and Medical Associations. Interest in Reich's sexual theories and therapeutic techniques among writers, artists, musicians, actors. FBI and INS investigations. 1947 Brady article instigates FDA campaign against Reich.

This class takes us up to February 1954 when Reich is served with a federal Complaint for Injunction.

Reading for Class #14

Complaint for Injunction (filed February 10, 1954) which declared orgone energy
"non-existent" and sought to enjoin Reich from the interstate shipment of orgone accumulators and from the dissemination of information about accumulators.

Reich's written Response to the judge (February 22, 1954) in which he declared that a court of law has no jurisdiction over matters of scientific research and subsequently refused to appear in court to respond to the Complaint.

Decree of Injunction (March 19, 1954) issued by default, which ordered the destruction of orgone energy accumulators, the destruction of much of Reich's publications, and the withdrawal from circulation of other publications.

CLASS #14: U.S. Government's Legal Case Against Reich (1954-57) and Summary of Reich's Legacy and Contributions

FDA decision to seek an Injunction against Reich. The role of U.S. Attorney for the state of Maine, Peter Mills, Reich's former attorney. Complaint for Injunction. Reich's Response to the Complaint. Decree of Injunction. Contempt of Court charges against Reich. Trial for criminal contempt of court. Destruction of orgone energy accumulators (1956). Destruction of Reich's books, research journals, bulletins, other materials (1956 and 1960). Reich dies in prison (1957)

Summary of Reich's legacy and its contributions to psychoanalysis, psychiatry, biology, medicine, science, sociology and politics.

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